The blue whale is magnificent and the largest animal to ever live. This animal reaches lengths of around 110 feet, or 33 metres, and weighs at least 209 tonnes, or 190 tonnes. It means that a typical blue whale is half the length of a football field and just about 20 feet longer than a professional NBA court. Interestingly enough, if such an animal ever existed on land, it would be crushed under its weight.
Because of its size, speed, and power, the blue whale has virtually no natural predators in the ocean. However, despite how huge this animal measures and weighs, it remains completely harmless to humans.
The spectacular blue whale
Blue whales are found in all the oceans around the world except parts of the Arctic that remain covered in ice throughout most of the year. There are three populations of blue whales: the North Atlantic, the North Pacific, and the southern hemisphere.
Unfortunately, after commercial whaling, blue whales are the hardest-hit species and have been slow to recover since 1966. They are still viewed as endangered and face threats such as vessel strikes, entanglements in fishing gear, and collisions with ships.
The migration of blue whales
Blue whales migrate in search of food and water, as well as seek calving and nursing areas seasonally. However, despite their large size, scientists still consider the travel patterns of blue whales a major mystery.
What experts do know is that since blue whales are found in all the oceans, they generally embark on lengthy migrations towards equatorial waters in the winter and feed in polar waters in the summer.
A pair of young blue whales
Every year, blue whales migrate and cover approximately 4,000 miles. First, they feast on krill in the warm summer months before travelling southward towards their mating grounds in the winter. Many female blue whales are reported to give birth during the southernmost leg of their journey in warm waters.
Yet these migration patterns do not apply to all blue whales worldwide. Some of them may travel only shorter distances to reproduce and feed, while other blue whales take annual trips from polar to equatorial waters.
Blue whales choose to swim in either small groups, pairs, or completely alone. They typically swim about 5 miles an hour as they feed and travel. However, they can accelerate their speed to more than 20 miles an hour for short bursts.
Blue whales and their songs
Blue whales, notable for their size, are also highly regarded for their vocalisations. They string together their low-frequency and deep trills and compose songs loud enough to be heard while they travel underwater. Since they are among the loudest animals on earth, in the right oceanographic conditions, the sounds emitted by blue whales can be heard by other whales up to 1000 miles away.
A recent study discovered that throughout the warmer summer months, male blue whales sing, especially at night. But when it’s time to migrate to warmer waters, they prefer to sing during the day. Moreover, experts also noted that their singing patterns vary according to the whale’s feeding and mating cycles.
A blue whale breaching in Inside Passage, Alaska
When an underwater microphone was dropped 3,000 feet deep into Monterey Bay, it recorded the bay’s underwater soundscape consistently for over five years. This experiment provided William Oestreich, a biological oceanographer at Stanford University, and his team with some interesting and striking patterns.
The team separated the daytime and nighttime songs from each other. Moreover, when krill dispersed at night, the blue whales continued to sing for up to 12 hours on end. In total, the research team recorded 400 songs before migration, of which the whales sang more at night than during the day. But when they were full of krill and started swimming towards the south, they sang more during the day than at night.
It is still unsure what purpose a whale fulfils while singing, but these studies suggest that information about reproduction, behaviour, and migration can be embedded into their songs.
Blue whales and their migration areas
According to some pieces of evidence, a few species of blue whales might not migrate at all. Those who do are largely driven by food availability, wherein they travel to areas where more krill are concentrated.
In the Southern Hemisphere, Antarctic blue whales are often sighted in relatively high-latitude waters and even closer to the ice edge in summer. They further migrate to middle and low latitudes in the winter. The subspecies of blue whales that are typically distributed north of the Antarctic Convergence are the pygmy blue whales. They are also abundant in the waters of New Zealand, Madagascar, and Australia.
A female blue whale with a calf
In the North Atlantic Ocean, the range of blue whales extends from the subtropics to the Greenland Sea. They are sighted in the waters of the Eastern United States and Eastern Canada. Blue whales are also believed to spend their winters off of Mexico and Central America. They likely feed off the US West Coast during the summer.
Moreover, blue whales with young calves are often observed in the Gulf of California or the Sea of Cortez. This region serves as an important nursing and calving area for the blue whale species.
The best places to spot blue whales
It is a different experience to watch the blue whale swim in the water and breach perfectly. Here are the best spots to go on a thrilling whale cruise and meet the world’s largest mammal:
- Monterey Bay, California, from August to September
- Baja California, Mexico, from November to late December
- Reykjavik, Iceland, from May to August
- Saguenay, Quebec, between May and October
- Mirissa, Sri Lanka, from November to April
- Pico Island, Portugal, from February to March
A blue whale swims through the waters of California
It is undoubtedly special to see blue whales thrive in their natural habitat. With increasing research, we might even understand the true meaning of blue whale migration patterns sooner or later. But for now, one can always enjoy an exciting whale-watching cruise!
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